Understand the Ad tracking world through Facebook

Many of us don’t like the idea of getting tracked by the ad tracking world but can’t help ourselves much since we can do very little to restrict them.

In spite of being an active member of the social networking sites, we don’t have any clear idea about how the ad world is tracking us and our whereabouts. The companies with whom we are not connected in anyways are using our data mysteriously.

But Facebook throws limelight to its users, so they can have an idea about the intricate ad world. Currently, Facebook is working on the advertisement settings so that we can get a brief idea on how the ad world is tracking us and what we can really do to ignore them.

The most remarkable change Facebook made till date is by creating a new section in its advertising preferences for you to view the listings of the number of companies visited your profile for getting your info.

This too again segregates into two sections, where the first part includes the name of the advertisers who used your information and advertised into it and comes under the heading “who uploaded a list with your info and Advertised to it”. The information they receive is basically from the various business websites, URL or links you have visited very recently and uploads the same to Facebook.

The second section of this seems to be more startling since the brokers about whom you are completely unknown are the ones who had already uploaded a list along with your information and started advertising and comes under the heading “Who have uploaded and shared a list with your info”.

Although they are quite famous companies you are unaware of it. Once you visit the settings and go to ad preferences you will find out how companies are tracking you.

Thanks to Facebook, at least because of its efforts you now have an idea how you are getting exposed to advertisers and by selecting “Why am I seeing this ad?” under News Feed, you can also get detailed information on why you are being targeted for the particular ad.

It’s true to get into more details about advertisers you need to search for it a little bit since it is not openly discussed but a little bit of extra effort can help you to identify the root cause behind such advertisements.